This chart, from Robert Rapier, is interesting:
(Note that the Y-axis does not begin at zero, so the curve is exaggerated slightly)
But remember, Obama has declared war on domestic energy!
Louisiana State University business professor Joseph R. Mason told a March 17 House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that what critics call the “permitorium” has been even more economically detrimental than previously forecast. He estimated the drilling ban has killed 13,000 jobs in the Gulf region. “The lost output will not be regained, and the lost wages cannot be spent,” Mr. Mason said.
But the other villain is the Obama administration. While it is sitting there criticizing and attacking the oil industry, every policy that this administration has pursued for the last three years has been anti-oil production and gas production.
Speaking at such a plant in Fairless Hills, Pa., owned by the Spanish firm Gamesa, Obama said there was “not much we can do next week or two weeks from now” about gas prices. He didn’t address his two-year war on domestic energy including a seven-year moratorium on oil drilling off both coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska.
More Investor’s Business Daily:
Get the picture? We’re being systematically starved of energy, and our economy is suffering. Just don’t ask the White House to help.
At every town, the message we receive is the same: Washington could provide no better job stimulus than to stop its war against domestic energy production.
Speaker of the House John Boehner’s website:
Driving down American energy production that creates new jobs… Sean Shafer with Quest Offshore Resources, Inc., testified that the “long term effects of the moratorium and subsequent regulatory slowdown will lead to lower development levels in the Gulf of Mexico which will lower oil and gas production levels and associated employment and economic activity levels in the economy.”
Facts really are a pain in the ass, aren’t they?
520 Chestnut 
In addition to posting that chart, Robert Rapier asks two very important questions: “Why did domestic oil production increase under Obama when it fell under Bush, and should Obama get credit for this?” Several people commented that the increase in domestic production could be attributed to increased efficiency on the part of companies (via hydraulic fracturing techniques, perhaps?). I really don’t know if that is true or not, but that really is an interesting and counter intuitive chart. What are your thoughts regarding why domestic production has increased? Have policy changes been favorable for domestic production? Do you think Obama should be doing more to limit drilling? The politics surrounding oil drilling is something I know next to nothing about.
As for the media. Yeah, they are a bunch of idiots….
As to why this has happened, I don’t really have a good answer for you. I’ll be interested to see what Rapier has to say about it. Regarding technology improvements, though, I don’t really buy it. And hydraulic fracturing is used in natural gas, I haven’t heard of it being used for oil, although I suppose maybe its possible. My best guess is that companies have attempted to expand their domestic operations in response to fragile situations overseas.
I do think domestic drilling should be limited, although I acknowledge it probably isn’t possible (politically or technically). My rationale is this: We will run out of affordable oil. That will be disastrous for our economy as it stands now. As long as we are expanding drilling, people won’t believe that there’s a problem, and the political will to find real solutions won’t exist (at least not to a high enough extent). For example, CNN and other major media outlets kept throwing around this number, something like 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Marcellus shale. Most people will think “Trillions? Thats a high number. Were fine.” and the problem is further exacerbated by reports saying that there is enough gas in the formation to last 100 years. So people think even if we run out of oil, we’ve got 100 years of gas so were good! But that 100 year figure is based on current utilization rates. If oil becomes prohibitively expensive, and we rely on our switch to gas, those rates will go way up, and that timeline suddenly gets a lot shorter.
To sum up, I see domestic drilling as a near term fix to a long term problem, and a fix that only pushes looking for a long term solution down the road. The longer we wait, the harder it gets.